Page 96 of The Divide that Binds Us

“You tried talking to him, didn’t you?”he asks.

“At least Logan can’t say I didn’t try,” Mildred mumbles, rubbing her arms.Her shirt tightens from the movement, reminding her to get a bigger size next time to be able to move around comfortably.“How’d the calls go?”

Roon passes her the lamp and flips through pages of his notebook.Each sheet has a cartoon doodle of a monarch he sketched with his red pen.

“Well, Remington just came down with the nastiest cold, so he won’t be doing any public speaking for QUITE some time,” he gushes with a sly smile.“No Wave Riding Season for him this year.”

“Good, good,” Mildred murmurs.“And everyone else?”

“Allison and Evan are good.Oona has already launched her artificial farms and will be implementing them on Emerald soon.Jonah just received another shipment of wood and water from us.Sophie is still in communication with Azul—dumb and snitching as usual.”

“She’ll never understand our vision.”Mildred claps her hands together.“I prayed every night hoping she’d come around.”

“I know!”Roon squeals before briefly glancing down.“Um, why aren’t you wearing any shoes?”

“I like my toes being out, it’s freeing.”She misses soaking in the sun in dresses when she was young enough to not understand crime and maintain her innocence.She missed burrowing her toes into the sand or feeling the blades of the tall grass.

They climb the stairs and head back to the other station platform, her room.A few members stroll by and wave while holding books Mildred provided on essays regarding the lushness of Naven.It’s never talked about enough in school, but people need to know that there is truth to Naven being called the Glorious Paradise of the Alternate World.

Mildred hurls her balled up cloak in the corner where her heels and trunk wait to welcome the new item to the pile.She squats in her chair, flexing her ashy feet from the newfound ache and soreness that’s accumulating.Her shoulders slump as she contemplates an excuse to not go aboveground because of her exhaustion.

“Ma’am...does offing Drake Strife count?I believe he’s...one of them,” Roon whispers, pacing around the platform.

Mildred jerks her head up.“Elaborate.”

“Well, he’s an Ultima member who can go through walls and turn into a dragon.Is it a coincidence or...?You know, the forgotten history?”

Doubt courses through Mildred as she ponders the thought.The Spirit User power may be just walking through walls.But the dragon part?He may indeed be one of them.

“Let me think about it a little and I’ll give you a definite answer later,” she mumbles, smoothing out her shirt.

Thaddeus hurries down the stairs, feet tapping quickly as the belts, keys, and attachments of his Guard uniform jingle to his jog toward Roon and Mildred.

“Lady Anguine, I have news!”he huffs.He’s supposed to be at his post on Remington’s estate.“Word traveled from our Onyx buddies about a young boy adopted by a woman by the name of Vinyl Steed.”

Her attention is caught as her eyes widen, heart racing in anticipation.Roon crosses his arms and sticks his hip out.

Thaddeus stares at them, bald head shiny from sweating.“They did some digging and the boy is Wren Crest.Son of the late Nancy Crest.He’s on Emerald Island.The father recently passed.”

“Wren is alive?B-But the news said he died in the fire with Nancy.”Mildred dazes until her vision doubles as she’s briefly sucked in a cave of memories.She clutches her brown silk shirt to calm her tremors.“My sweet lunar-son has been alive all this time?”

“Nancy is the bestie, right?And Wren was like, the kid you were blessed by the Superiors to take care of if his parents died?”Roon asks.He pops gum in his mouth and smacks it obnoxiously, breaking Mildred out of her reverie.

Roon has been ignorant to most common knowledge of Zeala and just...everything in general, but it makes sense he may have no memory of a birth blessing in the ocean.

“Correct.”Never mind the fact that it was Nancy who had the vision of the Light striking Zeala.Mildred only wonders if Wren also has the gift of sight.He may have more visions she can tell her followers.

“Roon, you have a new assignment,” Mildred states, staring intensely at the waving flame in the torch in the wall.

With everything falling into place with Garnet’s Wave Riding Season and Topaz’s dragon eggs raid, Emerald’s hunt for Wren can be added to Zeala’s list of headaches.

Roon pops his gum again and brushes a handful of his platinum-tipped hair back.

“Anything for you, honey drop.”

Mildred inhales, closing her eyes and reveling in the new blissful life she’s excited to live in soon.“Order the retrieval of Wren and bring him here,” she says, opening her eyes and blasting them at Roon.“Even if you have to pry him from a dead woman’s hands.”

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